White River named nation's second 'National Blueway'

Jan. 16, 2013

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| News-Leader Staff

The White River and the watershed that feeds it has been designated a “National Blueway” by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The White River is the second watershed to receive such recognition; the first was the Connecticut River.

A National Blueway designation doesn’t establish any new protections for a watershed, but it does open doors to federal support for local and regional conservation, recreation and restoration projects. In the case of the White River, the designation can improve coordination between local or regional entities and federal agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Department of the Interior and Department of Agriculture.

“The designation of the White River Watershed as a National Blueway validates the long-standing and ongoing multifaceted partnerships that have been actively conserving, protecting and restoring the White River and its tributaries for decades,” said Mike Knoedl, director of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

National Blueways are chosen because they are nationally significant and highly valued for their recreational, economic, cultural and ecological assets.

“The White River has great diversity from top to bottom,” said Richard Davies, director of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. “Its blue waters in the Ozarks attract trout anglers and enhance other outdoor recreational activities. In the Delta, its cypress-lined brown waters are known for top-notch bass fishing and world-class duck hunting. And along its entire length, agriculture is a crucial part of the economic picture.”

The White River is also important because it’s one of five commercially navigable rivers in Arkansas.

Flowing 722-miles from its headwaters in Arkansas’s Boston Mountains, the White River runs north into Missouri before coursing south through the Delta and into the Mississippi River in southeast Arkansas. Its watershed encompasses 17.8 million acres, and the water in the White and its tributaries and reservoirs is a source of drinking water for many of the 1.2 million people living here.

The White and its tributaries also provide water for irrigation for agriculture.

Within the White River Watershed, natural areas include 23 Corps of Engineers parks, three river parks managed by the National Park Service, three national wildlife refuges, two national forests, and more than 100 state-owned parks, wildlife management areas or conservation sites in Arkansas and Missouri.

The watershed also encompasses thousands of acres conserved voluntarily by landowners through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wetlands Reserve Program, which is funded by the U.S. Farm Bill.

This watershed supports the largest wintering concentration of mallard ducks in North America as well as a host of other wildlife.